Six former eBay employees were alleged to be harassing a couple who had condemned the e-commerce company by sending over indecent messages and mailing them insects and a Halloween mask displaying a bloody pig face.
The U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Massachusetts has issued criminal charges that indicate a conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and a conspiracy to commit cyberstalking were issued against two ex-eBay executives: David Harville, 48, the company's former director of global resiliency and James Baugh, 45, eBay's former senior director of safety and security, and 4 other former employees.
According to Federal authorities, they were charged for undertaking a large-scale campaign to threaten the editor and publisher of an online newsletter. Their activities included warning remarks and disturbing deliveries to their house that consisted of cockroaches and spiders, reported Snopes.
Also, the suspects delivered pornographic magazines labeled with the name of the husband to their neighbor's home. They also planned to invade their garage to install a GPS device on the couple's vehicle.
The charges were declared in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on Monday, according to Seattle Times.
The accusation alleges that the employees from eBay sent text messages indicating it was time for the downfall of the editor and publisher.
In August, the 6 employees were sacked, reported ConsumerAffairs.
Also, the employees' campaign apparently included Craigslist advertisements that recorded the couple's phone number and residence and indicated that they are looking out for wife-swapping encounters.
According to prosecutors, the defendants including two eBay executives established furtive surveillance for the purpose of psychologically and emotionally terrorizing the pair. They did so to deter them from further condemning eBay, according to Yahoo! News.
The accused included former director of global resiliency David Harville, and former senior director of safety and security, James Baugh. On Monday, both former employees were taken into custody.
According to US Attorney Andrew Lelling, "It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick, all because they published content company executives didn't like."
On Monday, eBay released a statement making a formal apology to the couple and asserted that they sacked the employees identified in the complaint last September 2019.
The executives further made fake social media handles in order to post regarding forged events transpiring at the couple's residence and send the couple a surge of distressing messages.
Lelling added, "For a while, they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks as they desperately tried to figure out what was going on and stop it."
He said the former company employees were not merely unhappy, but they were enraged.
One former executive of the e-commerce corporation text messaged a fellow executive that he would like to "crush" the woman that was part of the couple.
According to the technology giant, eBay will not endure through their behavior. "The company cooperated fully and extensively with law enforcement authorities throughout the process."
Related Article: eBay Customers Affected by Security Flaw for Months
